Didn't we have a thread on here last winter about working with a frozen sand track? I was told you can't put salt on a sand track. Well, I'm here to tell you I'm now working in a sand round pen. Two weeks ago, it froze and I thought we were done for the winter. With the warm weather last weekend, we decided to try putting salt down and harrowing it in. Right after we laid the salt, we got all that rain so the sand was thoroughly saturated. Now it turned cold again. The pen has been excellent. This morning we scraped off the snow that fell last night. Underneath.. perfect. The horses I'm working with are barefoot, but they are getting good traction. There's a bit of cushion without being slippery/greasy on top at all. I would think a shod horse, especially with any kind of swedge let alone borium, would do even better.

Yeah, might have been a different forum, but I remember someone (tankin I think) who jumped all over me when I suggested salt to someone who was having trouble with a frozen sand track. I let it go because I had no personal experience and maybe you couldn't mix salt with sand... although I didn't see why not. Was pretty cold last week, round pen was excellent. Maybe won't be when we get down in the single digits. We'll see...

Here's a question for you. I'm getting antsy not being able to go out on the trail. Too much going around in circles bores me to death. I tried to trail yesterday but was no good barefoot with the frozen ruts and patches of ice. Ever use those snow pads? We have miles of dirt road to ride. Being these horses are in training and need to be ridden almost every day, I'm thinking shoes with borium and snow pads. I want the horses ready to go when the bossman gets back in the Spring.

I kept plenty of foxhunters fit throughout some tough New Jersey winters...which included not only daily conditioning but also hunting 2-3 times per week over a variety of terrain that included miles of dirt roads. All of them wore snow pads (with the bulb to keep the build up of ice at bay) and either borium or (as I prefer) screw in studs. The only thing that makes borium better is the fact that it is no maintenance....but I liked having the options of the differnet types of studs for when the ground conditions changed. It only takes 5 minutes to change them, and if you clean the holes and plug them you can allow the horse to be back to "flat shod" when you don't need the extra traction or when you turn them out and don't want to give them the extra weapon in a herd of other horses.

I used to keep a tin of shortening in the barn and melt it down in a bucket of hot water, then paint a thin layer on the entire hoof (inside and out) to create a barrier against the road salt and also help the snow and ice from balling up. I also attached a good pick to my saddle O-ring incase I was far from home and needed to get off and remove anything that accumulated in the hoof. But really with the snow pads and the oil, anything that built up could be dislodged with a few trot steps on the dirt road....and I'm talking BIG FEET....you know those giant draft crosses that everyone loves to hunt with....yeah, them....dinner plate hooves. Up hill horses, that's what I called them...because no matter where you were riding, you always had to ride at them like you were going up hill....

That's how my Mom's Arabs are...teeny little soup cans....she uses the shortening method on barefeet (or bacon grease) and it works well....but she puts fronts with snow pads on them if they are getting any kind of regular work...